Selina Defor is multi-lingual and has experience in the coordination of research activities, consultative dialogues as well as working with international development organisations such as the West Africa Health Organisation, Africa Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the Institut Régional de Coopération- Développement (IRCOD), Strasbourg, France.
She supported the West African Health Organization (WAHO) to implement one of its flagship projects that sought to promote the sharing of best practices in health across the West African sub-region, and provided support for the replication and scaling up of the same within ECOWAS Member States. She was until December 2017, the Coordinator of the Consortium for Mothers, Children, Adolescent and Health Policy and System Strengthening (COMCAHPSS) project, a project that aimed to strengthen health systems and policy for improved health outcomes for mothers and children in West and Central Africa. Selina led the first-ever gender audit of the Social and Human Development and Governance Cluster of the United Nations Africa Regional Coordination Mechanism, and promoted the mainstreaming of gender equality within the programmes and activities of partner agencies. She conducted gender research on one of the African Union/NEPAD flagship regional development policy frameworks, the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme, and developed recommendations for a gender-sensitive framework for agricultural development and food security.
Selina holds a Master’s Degree in Development Studies, from the Université de Strasbourg, France, Master’s Degree in International Relations, from the Institut de Traducteurs, d’Interprètes et de Relations Internationales (ITI-RI), France, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Information Studies & French, from the University of Ghana. She is currently a doctoral scholar at the University of the Western Cape, her research seeks to provide real time evidence to support the establishment of a multidisciplinary policy research network for Health policy and systems in West Africa.